HTB transfer - Halifax to Yorkshire BS

garfield33

Hi everyone, I'm trying to move my Help-to-Buy ISA from Halifax to Yorkshire BS, and the process seems to be lost between the two.
Halifax said they received the form from YBS, but info was missing so they have sent a rejection email to "me" (I assume they mean YBS).
YBS say they have had nothing from Halifax.
Halifax said they are unable to re-send the info to YBS.
One Halifax person asked me to re-send the form to them, so I had to tell him that it's up to YBS to sort it out, but they can't if Halifax don't tell them there's a problem...

Just wondering if anyone else had experienced anything like this? I think I started it all about 2 months ago...

(And just for info, I'm too old to change to a Lifetime ISA)

eskbanker

The receiving provider is responsible for managing the transfer, so you need to pressurise YBS - it may be true that they haven't had anything back from Halifax, but it's up to them (YBS) to chase that.

garfield33

Thanks eskbanker. Last week YBS said they would go to Halifax, but I called again today and they'd done nothing so I pushed them again.
They were adamant that they had originally sent a complete form though, so who knows what the truth is there.
Will give it another week...

garfield33

Had a text from Yorkshire BS saying they've sent the forms to Halifax (again) - fingers crossed this time!

I've worked back and so far it is 8 weeks since I first sent off the form... (and it was a couple of weeks before that when I first requested the form)

eskbanker

Might be worth asking YBS for a copy of what they've sent Halifax?  It shouldn't be necessary of course, and they might resist sending it to you (although I'd have thought they'd be obliged to if you sent a subject access request), but it could come in handy in the event of subsequent contact from Halifax about allegedly missing information again....

garfield33

Thanks eskbanker, sorry for the delay in replying - had a week off and didn't go on the laptop much.
A couple of days after the info above, I got updates from Halifax saying they'd closed my ISA.
Now just waiting for Yorkshire BS to send me details of my new account!

garfield33

Latest update. The new ISA with YBS is open! But empty. 
Their message said to give it 15 working days, so after that I will then be phoning up again to find out what's going on...

Am I right that the interest is backdated to when the old ISA closed? (1st Dec in this case)

eskbanker

YBS should pay interest from the day after Halifax last did, according to the recommended practice.

garfield33

Today's update. It's been 15 working days so I called Yorkshire BS. They have not received any money from Halifax (!!!) so are going to send a chaser email to them.

When Halifax closed the account on 1st Dec they sent me a statement which included the interest paid for the part-year. However if they have still had the money for the last 3 weeks... should it be them paying interest for this period rather than Yorkshire?

eskbanker

https://web.archive.org/web/20230202094231/https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/693198/Appendices.pdf is the archived version of the recommended practices, although it no longer seems to be published on gov.uk - the principle remains that the interest payments should dovetail, with the new provider backdating interest to "the date the payment was initiated".

However, if one provider says they've sent it and the other denies receipt then it may take some detective work to ascertain which, if either, is telling the truth....

garfield33

More updates!
After battling through chatbots and getting cut off the phone lines, I spoke to someone in the Halifax savings team. She confirmed that the money had been sent to YBS, but wondered if the sort code was wrong as the one they have, and the one on my YBS account are different. Said she'd send messages to another Halifax team to get further info, and for me to call back next week for an update.

I then tried YBS again to ask about the sort codes to see if that was the problem. That person said "oh yes, we have had the money, but we can't put it in your account until Halifax send a transfer history form, we have asked them for it". This is different to what they told me last week (when they said they hadn't had the money), and means that the work the Halifax person was doing earlier was unnecessary! I also wonder who YBS are asking at Halifax, as this form was not mentioned when I spoke to Halifax.

So I called Halifax again (on the number I was told would take me to the savings team, but got through to a general person) to update them and ask for the form to be sent. He spent a time talking to people while I was on hold. Eventually said that probably best to call back later once the ISA team have had a look into it. I might wait til next week to do that.